Job offer and jury service, advice wanted

stephyt23

I have jury service on the 18th July and have been unemployed since January.

I was offered a job to do a summer playscheme but had to turn it down as the week of compulsory training is during jury service. I accepted this as it was to work with disabled children so there was no way around the training and as it's done at a school it can't be re-rearranged as the school children will still be in.

I had an interview at Accessorize yesterday and when asked about having any holidays booked or days I couldn't work i mentioned jury service. She made a note of this. The job was a temp job but no fixed end date as yet so ongoing. It was 4 hours contract but she said it's rare I would work 4 hours as there is lots of overtime that needs filling. Seems to be the way a lot of retail contracts operate at the moment.

Today I was offered the job. I'm starting Uni in September and have been volunteering at a school which again she knew about. I explained today that I have a module to do before I start so would need one day a week off. She said she could work around that. I said it would only be for 3 weeks as I'll then be on jury service and then it's the summer holidays so I can be free anytime.

Now suddenly the jury service became an issue and she said it would be too complicated not having me in so it's best if she withdraws the offer!

Should I write to head office about this as surely it's some kind of discrimination? I'll certainly mention it to the job office this week as what's the point me applying for jobs that start before jury service when it's going against me? If I was employed they'd have to let me go, and I still may turn up and not be needed anyway!

Uncertain

stephyt23 wrote: »

Today I was offered the job. I'm starting Uni in September and have been volunteering at a school which again she knew about. I explained today that I have a module to do before I start so would need one day a week off. She said she could work around that. I said it would only be for 3 weeks as I'll then be on jury service and then it's the summer holidays so I can be free anytime.

Now suddenly the jury service became an issue and she said it would be too complicated not having me in so it's best if she withdraws the offer!

As far as I'm aware this is illegal.

I would try to get this in writing as I'm sure the firm will try to deny everything once the penny drops.

If you have proof of the reason for the rejection you may possibly have a claim against the firm.

SarEl

It's not discrimination of an unlawful kind. To be honest, whilst I have little love of employers who have minimum hours contracts to get out of obligations to employees, I can see her point. You can't work one day a week because of a module and then you have to work around your volunteering, and then there's only three weeks of some times that you could work before jury service and then you are going to univeristy in 8-9 weeks time. That's a lot of "working around" when you are available when there are lots of people out there who are available and ready to work whatever hours she wants. I don't see what point there would be in complianing to the head office that they won't give you a job that suits your available time - which is effectively what you are saying. They'll likely just ignore you.

SarEl

Uncertain wrote: »

As far as I'm aware this is illegal.

I would try to get this in writing as I'm sure the firm will try to deny everything once the penny drops.

If you have proof of the reason for the rejection you may possibly have a claim against the firm.

They won't say it is because of the jury service - they'll say it is because the OP isn't available as they wanted. Like I said, there's a lot of working around commitments here and they don't want to have a worker who isn't available.

stephyt23

SarEl wrote: »

It's not discrimination of an unlawful kind. To be honest, whilst I have little love of employers who have minimum hours contracts to get out of obligations to employees, I can see her point. You can't work one day a week because of a module and then you have to work around your volunteering, and then there's only three weeks of some times that you could work before jury service and then you are going to univeristy in 8-9 weeks time. That's a lot of "working around" when you are available when there are lots of people out there who are available and ready to work whatever hours she wants. I don't see what point there would be in complianing to the head office that they won't give you a job that suits your available time - which is effectively what you are saying. They'll likely just ignore you.

I'm not going away to uni. It's part time not far from where I live and is only one full day a week which she said was fine. Still leaves me 6 days of the week to work.

My point is she knew my availability yesterday so why offer me the job and say that is the jury service which is the problem. Like I said I may not even be needed on the day or may know the person.

redped

While it's a pity the jury service is happening when it is, I can't see how what the woman is saying is discrimination - she wants you to work certain weeks, but you're not free for all of that time, so she's decided not to offer you the job. I know she had already agreed for you to take one day a week off for your module, but she probably reckons that the jury service is too much time for you to be away. After all, she wants to employ someone to work in the shop for a certain period of time, and she'll most likely be able to find someone who can work all the hours available. Sorry that it's not what you want to hear, but I don't think there's any point you pursuing this with head office.

stephyt23

redped wrote: »

While it's a pity the jury service is happening when it is, I can't see how what the woman is saying is discrimination - she wants you to work certain weeks, but you're not free for all of that time, so she's decided not to offer you the job. I know she had already agreed for you to take one day a week off for your module, but she probably reckons that the jury service is too much time for you to be away. After all, she wants to employ someone to work in the shop for a certain period of time, and she'll most likely be able to find someone who can work all the hours available. Sorry that it's not what you want to hear, but I don't think there's any point you pursuing this with head office.

While that may be fine I just don't see why she bothered offering me the job then, she knew yesterday I have jury service.

I'm starting to see that from now on at interview I will have to lie! It's wrong that by being honest I'm losing out on jobs so lying is obviously the way forward for now

Meepster

stephyt23 wrote: »

My point is she knew my availability yesterday so why offer me the job and say that is the jury service which is the problem. Like I said I may not even be needed on the day or may know the person.

Or you could (as I was) be picked for jury service and the trial lasts for 3 months. I don't think any prospective employer would take the risk of taking on a new starter when they could be picked for jury service...

casualwalks

You can ask for Jury Service to be deferred if you have a good reason. When I was summoned it was for a date in the middle of my holiday. I wrote explaining the situation and they deferred it for 8 months.

redped

stephyt23 wrote: »

My point is she knew my availability yesterday so why offer me the job and say that is the jury service which is the problem. Like I said I may not even be needed on the day or may know the person.

Fair enough, but from her point of view she wants to know who'll be in the shop each day, but she can't plan her staff rota on the understanding that you may be available if you're not required for jury service on a given day.

redped

casualwalks wrote: »

You can ask for Jury Service to be deferred if you have a good reason. When I was summon it was for a date in the middle of my holiday. I wrote explaining the situation and they deferred it for 8 months.

If I was the OP, I'd rather get the jury service out of the way, before starting university. Much better than having to take time out of the first year in uni to serve on a jury.